Monday, June 8, 2015

Russia has Betrayed Not Just Ukraine but the Entire Civilized World, Portnikov Says

Paul Goble

Staunton,
June 8 – This week’s meeting of the G-7 has been forced to focus not on the
challenges posed by the Islamic State, Iran’s nuclear program, or Ebola but on
the actions of a former member of the group, Russia, because Moscow by its aggression
in Ukraine has betrayed the entire civilized world, according to Vitaly
Portnikov.

Unfortunately,
Vladimir Putin to this day does “not recognize all the consequences of his
insane actions” or that Russia was taken into what was then the G8 not on the basis
of economic power – in that case, China would have been included – but “based on
the hope that the Russian leadership would accept the importance of the joint
defense of democratic values”

The
G7, as Portnikov points out, “is based precisely on these values – democracy,
free markets, and respect for sovereignty, human rights, and human life.” The
West invited Russia to join in the hopes that it would respect these values,
but Putin’s actions show that the West “miscalculated” (rus.newsru.ua/columnists/08Jun2015/privivpredatelstvo.html).

If
“by some miracle” Russia survives “on the political map of the world” and ultimately
becomes “a normal country,” it is going to find what it views as its place in
this grouping occupied by Brazil or India or even China “when [Beijing] shifts
to democracy of a Japanese type,” the Ukrainian commentator argues.

And
it is the prospect of its growth to include these countries that explains why the
G7 this week “is talking so much about Ukraine.”For its members, “the stabilization of the situation”
in Ukraine “and the punishment of the aggressor” is not only a manifestation of
its core values but “a lesson for future members of the club” about what is
permissible.

That
in turn highlights what must be the most bitter reality of all, Portnikov
concludes: “The Russians have betrayed not only us [Ukrainians]; they have betrayed
the entire world which had so many illusory hopes about them.”